Some twenty-five miles upstream from Raqqa, a Syrian city on the Euphrates River’s northern bank, thousands of government employees fill a 15-story building where eight turbines churn out electricity to war-ravaged north and east Syria.

Nearly three months have passed since rebels took over much of Raqqa province, yet it’s business as usual at the hydroelectric plant at Syria’s largest dam. Workers here still receive salaries from the government. A technical repair team from Damascus was recently dispatched to fix a glitch in the control room.

Barely five kilometers away, rebel fighters are battling to expel government troops from one of the two last remaining bases in the province. The entrance to Tabaqa, the town built around the Tabaqa Dam project–is guarded by a small Free Syrian Army unit called the Uwais al-Qarni Brigade, after the Muslim mystic who lived in the time of the Prophet Muhammad and whose tomb is in Raqqa.

The conflicting reality of rebels, the Syrian regime’s sworn enemies, guarding a state-run institution is one the Tabaqa community–workers and state security officials–have gotten used to. The Tabaqa Dam, a hallmark project of Assad family rule that was built with Soviet expertise, is one example of the unspoken agreements between rebels and the regime that keep major services running across Syria.

“I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the plant,” said a technical supervisor, who recently offered a reporter a tour of the Tabaqa power plant, which he called “the nerve center for the electricity network in northern Syria.” Read More »